Hastein

Haesteinn of Nantes (823-), also known as Hasting, was the Chief of Nantes. A possible illegitimate son of Ragnarr Lodbrok, Haesteinn became a famous Viking king who ruled the areas around the Loire and Seine rivers in Brittany. Haesteinn raided not only France, but also raided Spain, Italy, the Byzantine Empire, and England.

Biography
Haesteinn was said to have been a son of Ragnarr Lodbrok, but was probably illegitimate or unrelated. He was born to a Norse pagan family, the House of Haesteining. Haesteinn became a Viking leader, and in 843 he invaded West Francia, where he conquered Noirmoutier. In 859 he raided the Loire River, and from 859 to 862 he led 62 ships from the Loire River to raid the Mediterranean Sea along with Bjorn Ironside of Svibjod, another son of Ragnarr Lodbrok. He was first defeated by the Kingdom of Asturias during a raid into Spain, and he was also defeated by the Umayyad Caliphate at Niebla in 859. However, he raided and sacked Algeciras, burning the Muslim mosque. He also ravaged Mazimma in the Idrisid Caliphate, and he later raided the Umayyad Caliphate at Orihuela, the Balearic Isles, and Roussillon. During their Mediterranean raid, they also raided the mouth of the Rhone River, and they later moved to Italy. He attacked the city of Luna, believing it to be Rome, and he had his guards carry him to the city, feigning that he was dying and pretending that he wanted to convert to Christianity. He was taken to the city's church, where he received the sacraments before jumping from his stretcher and sacking the town with his men. He sacked Pisa and Fiesole while moving through Italy, and he raided the Byzantine Empire in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. On his way back to his base in the Loire River, he bought African slaves and sold them in Ireland, but as he returned home, the Muslims defeated him in the Straits of Gibraltar. He ravaged Pamplona before returning home with 20 longships.

When he returned to Nantes in Brittany, his home base, he allied with Salomon of Brittany and defeated the Frankish army of Robert the Strong at the Battle of Brissarthe on 2 July 866. That October, he killed Ramnulf I of Poitou in battle. In 867 he ravaged Bourges and attacked Orleans in 868, and in 872 he took Angers after sailing up the Maine River. Charles the Bald of West Francia besieged him until October 873, when he made peace with him. In 882 he was expelled from the Loire county by Charles the Bald and relocated to the north of the Seine, and he stayed there until the Franks besieged Paris and threatened his territory in Picardy.

Forced to flee France, Haesteinn embarked on invasions of Anglo-Saxon England. In 892 he led two great companies from Boulogne to England, and when Alfred the Great positioned his Wessex army between his 80-ship army and his allies' 250-ship army, he had his two sons baptised as terms that allowed him to leave Kent for Essex. With a formidable army, he raided Mercia, but in 893 he lost Benfleet, and his wife Chieftess Vigdis of Nantes and his sons were killed. Aided by the Danish kingdom of East Anglia and Jorvik, he continued his fight against the West Saxons, and led a retaliatory raid along the Thames Valley and the River Severn. Aethelred II of Mercia and a combined Mercian and West Saxon army fought them, and Haesteinn fought a series of bloody engagements with the English. In 896 his army dispersed into East Anglia, Northumbria, and the Seine River, and Haesteinn ruled the Channel Islands until his death sometime later.